Players Are Mixed On NFL's $100M Proposal To Bring End To Anthem Protests

By: Christopher Feery | December 2, 2017

National Anthem protests have been taking place across the National Football League for more than a year, but it looks like there’s finally some hope of progress being made. League officials, players, and owners have actually been talking things through to see if they can come up with a solution that works for all parties. Exactly why this tactic wasn’t taken from the get-go remains unclear, but the bright side perspective suggests that we should view the step as better late than never. Unfortunately, there’s still plenty of wrinkles that need to be ironed out before we can consider the talks a success.

As the New York Post shares, the NFL has offered up a proposal to players that would see the league pony up nearly $100 million to various charities that focus on various social justice initiatives and issues of importance to African-American communities. The league is hoping that such a step will help bring an end to the anthem protests, but it’s unclear if that will actually happen.

In any event, reaction has been mixed from players in regards to the olive branch offered up by the league. New York Jets linebacker DeMario Davis is among those that see the positives in the offer.

“I think it’s important for the NFL – they very openly said that they wanted to help us and be behind us and support us,” Davis said. “If we can have an ‘agreement’ to work together, it just shows that they are doing exactly what they said they’re going to do.”

Jets offensive lineman Kelvin Beachum is among those that have a sense of trepidation about the proposal.

“I’m not going to say that’s it – that it’s the end all, be all,” Kelvin Beachum said. “It’s a step in the right direction and we’re going to continue to have a conversation.”

San Francisco 49ers player Eric Reid is among those displeased, but his issues sound like they have more to do with the Players’ Coalition, a group led by Philadelphia’s Malcolm Jenkins and the recently retired Anquan Boldin.

“Malcolm continues to have conversations on his own with the NFL, and the Players’ Coalition is his organization. When we agreed to be a part of the Players’ Coalition, we were under the impression that it would be our organization. We were under the impression that we would all have equal say in that organization,” Reid said. “But we’ve come to find out that it’s actually Malcolm and Anquan’s organization. Nobody else really has a stake in the organization. Malcolm actually wants us to — he calls it invest, I call it donate — to the company to pay salaries for his staff. But again, we would have no equity in the organization.”

That sounds like behind the scenes housekeeping stuff that the players will need to work through, and it shouldn’t deflect from the generous offer made by the league. The players have a tremendous platform at hand to effect the changes that they want to see happen, but they need to go about it in more productive fashion if they actually want to get things done. The league is even offering up a helping hand, and quite the financial kickstart to boot. Exactly what more do they want here?